Until Further Titling – Week 2; Covenantal Love
are natural bugs of our existence. Whether the apple symbolizes self-awareness, egoism, technology, or the will to dominate, it is now integral to what humanity is. None of us are free of these burdens, and the direction life takes can be partially determined by our tendencies.
This column is similar to something I have long wanted to write myself. Christian conservatives spend a good deal of time discussing homosexuality as an exclusive and special sin, something worthy of note within our culture as perhaps particularly dangerous or revolting. This inclination is incorrect. All of us have tendencies at least as malignant and corrupting as being attracted to the same sex.
Now for some light heresy…
Why do I say “at least” as harmful to us as the tendency to love those of the same sex? [This is one of those careful discernments in which the limits of the English language are prohibitively restrictive and stumble-able…] Because this tendency can be borne of virtue gone awry. Love is the highest of all virtues, and though one could make the case that corruptio optimi pessimista, I am not convinced it applies here (pride, hate, and apathy are the corruptions of love which result in the corruption of the best).
Define “love.” Mine: “Truly willing the good for the other, as other.” Is it possible that there is any circumstance in which eros (taken in its fullness as the deepest form of love) would not be restricted by God to between a man and woman? Natural law notwithstanding, I am not sure one can, with full certainty, say this type of love would never arise in God’s plan. Put your viscerality aside and think.
There is a slippery telos to eros that can’t quite be defined. Our drive toward that in which we are sexually love-interested is beyond logic or rigorous application of descriptors. Is the only Christian answer to this question “sure, those people should just be priests”? It seems weak, and far too certain…
More thoughts in coming days – and I will note that this doesn’t render void any of my thoughts on the Synod presently ongoing. We may need exception and softening of our discussion of certain circumstances, but it should absolutely not take place at the Vatican level…
I will stop rambling now, and let someone else do it. Here it is: Born Gay? Maybe. Born Corrupt? Definitely.
